“It was said that this was the scene of their courtship, but it may be only a story.

“After her father’s death she lived in Washington, but she often visited Cousin Anne in the old place.  As I have said, I remember seeing her and hearing her talk, when I was a child of six or seven.  She was a stately and beautiful old lady, and as I recall it now, her face showed she had borne her share of trouble and disappointment bravely; and you can’t say more than that for anybody.”

“That is what Cousin Louis says,” remarked Rosalind, smiling at Maurice.

“But you haven’t told us what the ring was like,” put in Charlotte.

“I never could tell a straight story,” replied Miss Betty, laughing.  “Well, it was a broad band of open lace-work of a most delicate and beautiful pattern, and made of pure gold.  The stone was an oval sapphire of great depth and purity of color, in a setting of tiny stars, made of little points of gold.  When Miss Patricia died she left the ring to Cousin Anne, her niece, along with many other valuable things.  Cousin Anne never wore it, but she used to show it to me sometimes as a great treat, and I have tried it on more than once.  Cousin Anne ought to have made a will; but at best she was an undecided person, and she had a long illness.  It was generally supposed she would leave it to your aunt Genevieve, Rosalind, or else to Patricia Marshall.  Indeed, there were half a dozen of them who would have given their heads for it.  Cousin Anne knew it, and she hated to disappoint anybody, so she ended by disappointing everybody.”

“Why didn’t she leave it to you.  Miss Betty?” asked Jack.

“Miss Patricia was not related to me.  She was aunt to Cousin Thomas and Cousin Anne on their father’s side, and I am connected through the Barnwells, his mother’s family, just as Rosalind’s grandmother is,” she explained; adding, “As Cousin Anne left no will, everything she owned went to her brother; and you have all heard about his will.  Most of his money was to go to the endowment of a hospital, all the other property to be sold and the proceeds divided among his first cousins or their children, except the ring and an old spinet that came to him through his wife.  The first he left to Allan Whittredge, the other to Celia Fair.”

“To Uncle Allan?” asked Rosalind, greatly interested.

“Yes, and everybody wonders why.  However, when they came to take an inventory, the ring was not to be found.”

“And they haven’t the least idea what became of it,” remarked Maurice.

“I think it was stolen,” said Miss Betty, “although I acknowledge there is something mysterious about it.  Cousin Thomas was subject to attacks of heart failure, and was found one evening unconscious in his arm-chair before the open door of the safe, where he kept his valuables.  Morgan had left him an hour before, apparently as well as usual.  He was discovered in this condition by old Milly,